April 10, 2022 • 42 mins
In this week's episode of the Pet Owner Diary Show, Co-Host Tay Shoemaker introduces us to Hunter Houck, a small pet influencer with a ton of drive! Hunter tells about his experience as a 16 year old star on the rise. He gives some insight into being a YouTuber, Podcast Host, business owner. What does it take and how you to can do it all on your own! Are you an ispring young person wanting to be the next You Tube Star? Check this now, don’t miss this exciting episode with Hunter Houck.
Guest Links:
Website: http://hunterhouck.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/hunterhouckofficial?utm_medium=copy_link
YouTube: http://youtube.com/hunterhouck
Guest Links:
Website: http://hunterhouck.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/hunterhouckofficial?utm_medium=copy_link
YouTube: http://youtube.com/hunterhouck
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Pet Owner Diary Podcast, a show about helping you become a
better pet parent. In each episode, we deliver raw, honest, funny,
and insightful advice on how to bea great pet parent for any type
of pet. Now here's your host, America's Pet Owner Coach Janelle Young.
Welcome back to the Pet Owner DiaryShow. My name is Tassuemaker, and
(00:24):
I'll be your co host today.Pet influencers, what does it take to
be one? An even harder questionfor you? What does it take to
become one? If you ask anycontent creator with a larger following, they'll
almost always tell you the same thing. Luck with ever changing algorithms, trends,
(00:47):
drama and audiences, I can atleast say for myself that Lady Luck
was definitely involved, but it alsohelped to have cute frogs doing most of
the modeling work. If you don'tknow, I have a I guess I
would say pretty successful social media personatases out at critters or my TikTok name
(01:10):
mother of Frogs. I started myInstagram account back in twenty sixteen for my
little beta fish and it grew fromthere and thanks to my accounts I've met
so many wonderful people, been ableto do so many things that I never
imagined I could, and I gotwonderful opportunities just like this show. But
(01:32):
it took a lot of hard workand dedication on top of the luck to
get here. One of my favoritethings to do as a creator with a
larger following is uplift smaller creators.And there's one person who has been on
my radar for a while now.Watching him grow into his content has been
so satisfying because I can just tellhe's going to go so far and do
(01:55):
so good. He's a hard workerwith a dedicated following and a very consistent
upload schedule. I'd like to introducey'all to Hunter Huok, the creator of
Hunter Walk Official and founder of CrimsonExotic Rescue. Hey Hunter, how are
you doing today? Hey Tay,I'm doing well. Thank you so much
(02:16):
for having me and for your kindwords. Yes, and am I saying
your last name right? Just tomake sure? Um it's Hunter howk?
But either way is good, perfect, good to know everyone's hawk all right?
And so Hunter, I've known youfor a few years now. We
haven't really gotten to chat, butwe've we've talked a little bit, and
(02:38):
I see your YouTube videos come upon my page all the time. I
can really see the drive in you, and that's needed to make it in
social media. For those who don'tknow you, Could you introduce yourself to
everyone? Absolutely? Hi, everyone, My name is Hunter. Howk um
oh boy. This is a hardquestion. I don't really know how to
(03:00):
describe myself, but basically, Ikeep reptiles and amphibians and I make digital
content. My saying is that Iwant to build community with reptile and amphibian
keepers around the world. So that'swhat I'm hoping to do on my little
section of the Internet, I guess. And so Hunter has almost four thousand
(03:20):
followers, so he's getting close tothe big milestone of ten thousand for me
at least, and I think manyof our people in our pool of Internet
might agree with me. A creator, a small creator under twenty thousand is
what is actually considered to be asmall creator. But even then with forty
(03:40):
thousand, I'm considered a small creatorfor Instagram, so for some perspective,
to be considered a full celebrity,a couple hundred thousand to a couple million
followers are needed. In that case, I am placed at the very start
of the spectrum and not even halfwaythere. So everything Hunter and I are
(04:02):
going to be talking about today isall from our own retrospect So Hunter,
when did you start your journey withsocial media? Oh, that's a great
question. So I started making YouTubevideos in I believe March of twenty eighteen,
but I didn't start focusing seriously onthe reptile and amphibian or pet content
(04:25):
side of social media and tell abouttwenty nineteen, gotcha? And I know
before I started, I had severalinspirations and reasons to start my account.
Was there anyone or anything that madeyou really want to create your pet account
or just your social media in general? What made you want to join?
(04:46):
Absolutely? So I saw the impactthat people like Emzodic she was one of
my biggest role models at first,and people like Snake Discovery. You could
have on other reptile keepers or evenJessica who you Jessica's animal friends who you
had on the show a couple ofweeks ago or something. Yeah, But
like that, I saw how muchI could learn from them, and I
(05:08):
realized that maybe if other young reptilekeepers saw a young reptile keeper doing what
they want to be doing that itwould encourage them to do better and keep
going. So that's kind of whyI decided to switch to the reptile side
of things, but just social mediain general. I've always enjoyed creating content,
so I thought that that would bea fun way to do so,
(05:31):
right, and so I outed myselfin the last episode. So I'm gonna
oh you here too. I amtwenty one and Hunter is only sixteen,
and he's got to rescue a merchbusiness, a podcast, a booming YouTube
channel, and like so many otherthings. How how do you manage to
(05:55):
at least look so well put togetherat that age because I joined at the
same age and I was a mess. Well, that's a good question.
I guess the main thing is GoogleCalendar. Seriously, that's my main tip.
I have everything in my Google calendarlaid out for the day, and
if I didn't, I would definitelybe all over the place because I do
(06:16):
have a lot going on, andalso I do online school, so that
definitely helps me have a lot offree time to do my stuff with my
different businesses. Gotcha, Yeah,that was actually my next question because you
are so young school, but Iguess that makes it makes things easier when
you know you can kind of doschool from home and be on your own.
(06:39):
I mean, I don't know howonline school works, but I assume
you're you're kind of on your ownschedule there. Yeah, basically I have
a certain number of things I haveto do each day or each week,
but I can kind of do them. I could do them at six am
or six pm or one am orwhatever. So, oh, that's so
nice. Yeah. I was inI guess you could say regular high school
(07:00):
when I joined, and yeah,I mean I was not the I'm not
the busiest person. I wasn't muchof an honor student, I'll say that,
but it was still tough to keepup with that definitely. Yeah,
and so you kind of started talkingabout it. Is there any like real
strategy you have to keep the consistencymaybe other than the calendar or you know,
(07:23):
what's your real strategy with that.I try to definitely plan out my
content Right now, I'm working ona few big video projects behind the scenes
as well as creating my normal weeklyor bi weekly uploads, and so it
definitely gets kind of difficult. Butyeah, on my computer I use Notion
(07:43):
to organize most of my video stuff, so I have different pages on there
where I can plan out videos aheadof time, so I can just sit
down film one, spend the nightediting it or something like that, and
then get it up and move onto the next thing. I don't have
a ton of time to work onvideos for hours and hours, so it's
(08:05):
definitely tricky, but I do tryto schedule it out right. Yeah,
that makes a lot of sense.That's way more than I do. I
kind of just kind of I knowyou're big on YouTube, and my YouTube
is not like that. I kindof just throw stuff up maybe once a
year. I don't think i've uploadedin the last year, so scheduling sounds
(08:26):
like something I need to do.I'm not good with time management. And
so you have like over eight thousandsubscribers on YouTube when I checked the last
that's you know, it doesn't seemlike a whole lot, but that's actually
a great achievement for YouTube. Becausethere's so much content to consume, it's
(08:48):
really easy to get lost in themix. How would you describe your content
on there? Yeah, so Itry to make educational and entertaining at the
same time content. So I liketo teach people about reptiles and amphibians and
build community with them at the sametime. I want people to be able
to learn while also enjoying, soI try to have high quality, professional
(09:13):
videos that people can relate, tolearn from and enjoy. Right, And
so you do a lot of likecare guide videos and stuff like that.
Is there is there anyone that waslike your favorite or that you really really
enjoy. Oh, that's a reallygood question. You know. I don't
(09:33):
know that I have a favorite videothat I've made, but I'd have to
say I really enjoy anything with leopardgeckos, So probably my leopard gecko care
guide. Oh our leopard geckos?Your favorite reptile? Do you have a
favorite? Don't tell them that,but yes, definitely, it's fine.
(09:54):
I have a favorite too. Yeah. And so your most popular video on
there is I think when I checked, it's the behind the scenes at the
Snake Discovery Zoo has like fifty fivethousand views on it. You were doing
a tank building competition, is thatright? Yes? Yeah, so I
(10:16):
was their last August for the SnakeDiscovery Enclosure build off, and that particular
video that you mentioned was filmed actuallyafter the event for that day, and
so I got to do a tourof behind the scenes of their news zoo,
and people really enjoyed that. Itwas a lot of fun, right
and we'll talk about that more afterthe break. We'll be right back with
(10:39):
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(12:16):
pet Family. Today we are withHunter Howk of Hunter Howk Official and Crimson
Exotic Rescue, and we were talkingabout his YouTube channel and a little bit
of the start of his career.So I want to continue with the YouTube
because we were talking about what Iwould say is your most popular video,
(12:39):
the Snake Discovery Behind the scenes andso just to remind us, you were
there for a enclosure building competition.Yeah, So they invited ten reptile content
creators from around I guess the UnitedStates in Canada to come down for a
day spend a day at the zoo, and we all built a four by
(13:01):
two by two enclosure and then thepublic was able to vote on which one
was their favorite, and then theywere auctioned off at the grand opening of
the Snake Discovery Zoo and the proceedswent to the United States Association of Reptile
Keepers. Wow, and so youkind of said it, but I want
to double check how did you endup doing that? Was there like a
sign up for just anybody or didthey specifically invite you, so Emily and
(13:26):
Ed reached out to me. Wehad spoken a few times and we've since
become good friends. But yeah,they reached out and asked if I wanted
to come, and I was likeabsolutely, because it was an awesome opportunity.
Wow, that's amazing honestly, becauseyou know, a lot of people
do not get those types of opportunities, and the fact that they reached out
(13:48):
to you means that they saw somethingin you, and that's really really special.
Yeah, I'm super grateful. They'vebeen big supporters of my channel since
when I had less than a thousandsubscribers, So oh, I love that.
And you're a hard worker, likeeven I can see the dedication,
the consistency is there. You reallyhave everything that you need to really make
(14:13):
it. So I definitely see thatnew and I know what they saw.
Thank you. And so how wasmeeting them working with such a huge creator
and Snake Discovery If our listeners don'tknow who we're speaking of, Snake Discovery
has almost I think three million subscriberson YouTube and that's just YouTube. They
(14:35):
have you know, accounts on everyplatform. So how cool was that?
Hunter? It was pretty awesome.So I had spoken to them because I
had them on a podcast that Iused to co host, and so I
kind of knew them and knew aboutthem. But we all went to dinner
the night before, myself and thenmost of the competitors, and so it
(14:56):
was really cool meeting everyone. Everyonewas super nice. It didn't feel like
you were in a room with combinedtens of millions of followers. You were
just there with cool people. Soit was awesome. Yeah, that's always
the best. One of the thingsthat I really love getting to do is
you know, when you do meetup with other people, or you know,
(15:16):
when you meet with people who youknow have a bigger audience with you,
you never really feel I mean,so far, no one has ever
made me really feel like I wasa smaller creator or you know that there
I wasn't worth their time or anythinglike that. Yeah, And I think
that's one of the awesome things aboutthe PET communities that people they everyone just
(15:39):
wants to share knowledge and they knowthat no matter how many followers you have,
everyone has something valuable to contribute forsure. Yeah, exactly. And
I mean especially this seasoned people.You know, back in my day when
I first joined when I was sixteen. There was a lot of drama because
there wasn't a huge community, butthe people that were in it were always
(16:04):
you know, smaller accounts being pettywith each other and stuff like that.
The big guys were never, neverin it, so there were really people
that you could look up to.Yeah, definitely speaking of drama, you
know, I mean, don't sayanything specific, but do you have experience
with that? Because I know Idefinitely do because I didn't know how to
(16:29):
be quiet and just not let hateget to me. So that's definitely a
lesson I've learned over the years.But yeah, when I first started in
the reptile YouTube community, there wasa lot of turmoil and drama going on.
Some of the big creators were gettingcanceled, so to speak, and
so it was definitely a big transitionperiod and a big shift going on in
(16:52):
the politics and dynamics of the reptilecommunity in general on YouTube. And so
I saw that and I learned like, Okay, this is bad. Drama
isn't helping anyone, It's only hurtingpeople. So I have done a pretty
good job of staying out of itas best as I can, because I
was very fortunate to fortunate or unfortunate, I guess, to join at a
(17:14):
time when there was a lot ofturmoil in the online reptile community, right,
And you know, I do thinkpart of it is the shift to
a younger audience, you know,because part of gen Z we stand up
for literally anything and we're you know, we'll just say what's on our mind.
But surprisingly, I've noticed that alot of a lot of the older
(17:38):
adults seem to seem to get inon the drama sometimes, which is very
surprising. Yeah, that is surprising, But it is definitely more of the
older people in the hobby who causedrama because they're pretty resistant to change.
Very broadly speaking, I'm not naminganyone specific or anything, but there are
(17:59):
a lot of people who are veryresistant to change, and so they kind
of get exiled from the online reptilecommunity because they, I guess, don't
want to adopt the new ways ofkeeping that the newer, younger people are
making mainstream, if that makes sense, right, well, and you know,
there are problems of people really thinkingthat there's only one right way to
(18:23):
do it and it's their way,when you know, you can literally google
one you know one animal and getmillions of results on how to care for
them, so it gets confusing.And like I said, you know,
we we young inns. We standup for what we believe in, so
(18:44):
sometimes we think we're always right forsure. But yeah, no, it's
it's been interesting to kind of growup in this community. I know you've
been in it a little bit shorterthan I have. What was your experience
(19:06):
coming in at you know, sucha young age. Yeah, so I
started in twenty eighteen, which,oh gosh, now I have to do
math here. That means I wouldhave been thirteen, so oh yeah,
it was definitely a yeah, alittle baby hunter. It was definitely a
young age to join the reptile communityand stuff. But I think people showed
(19:30):
me a lot of support and thatwas awesome because I have never been afraid
to ask question excuse me, askquestions and seek new information. And if
there was just a method of keepingthat I was like, this doesn't seem
right. I would try to findout where that started and maybe dismantled that
a little bit. So, youknow, it was weird, but I
feel like I I've always been kindof a mature person, so it didn't
(19:55):
feel like I was super young comparedto a lot of the other people because
everyone was very respectful and treated mejust like anyone else, right, And
Yeah, I was gonna say,you're very you know, you're very professional,
which is interesting to see because Ihave a lot of younger viewers and
I don't think i've met someone youknow, your age that is really just
(20:19):
just keeps things professional. You're very, very good at that. Thank you.
I would definitely It's definitely takes somework, but I try my best.
Yeah. No, I was gonnasay I was not like that when
I was your age, So it'svery It's refreshing to see, and I
think that's also why you've done sowell well. Thank you. Yeah,
(20:42):
and we do have to take aquick break here, so we'll be right
back with Hunter howp of Hunter HelpOfficial and Crimson Exotics Rescue. We all
(21:06):
know that a dog is man's bestfriend, won't why stop there? We
think that all pets make our livesa little easier, whether it's a cat,
gecko, or even a horse.We want to learn what makes your
pets so special to you. Maybethey have an eccentric personality or even give
good cuddles whatever it is, wewant to hear about it. After all,
(21:26):
our pets deserve a moment in thespotlight. Why not share an interesting
story about your pet with our host, pet coach Janelle Young. No matter
how big or small, We'd loveto hear from you on the Pet Owner
Diary show. We're looking for thenext pet celebrity superstar or that unique animal
story for TV and radio. Ifyou believe your pet has the it factor,
then call our pet line at fouroh seven nine oh six fifty seven
(21:49):
twelve or email us at pet OwnerDiary at gmail dot com. The possibilities
are endless. Maybe you and yourpet will be our next featured weekly guest
on TV or radio. Let's giveour pets the attention they deserve. Welcome
(22:17):
back, pet Family. We arehere with Hunter how of Hunter How Official
and just so I can get thisright and you can get this right.
That is at h U N TE R h O U C K official
O F F I C I AL if you want to go and check
(22:41):
Hunter out. We were talking abit of what it's like to be in
the community. This episode is ourrising star episode, and you know,
one of the things that I wantto start doing is featuring these smaller creators
because they are amazing and they needpeople to know about them. You know,
(23:02):
the more that we can uplift thiscommunity, the better. So Hunter
is our kind of test pilot todayand we were talking a bit about the
community, and so Hunter, let'smove back to your YouTube channel. All
right, So you had talked abouthow you plan things out, you have
(23:25):
a schedule, and I wanted toknow you said a little bit that you
know, that was your advice,but I really would like to know what
you would tell someone who's wanting tostart a YouTube channel. But is you
know, scared about not succeeding orhaving issues or you know, stuff like
(23:45):
that. Yeah, certainly, mybiggest piece of advice is just press record.
You don't have to have the nicestcamera at first. I started out
on I think like a one hundreddollar old DSLR or something exactly, remember
what it was, But yeah,just press record. It's not going to
be your greatest video. That's whyyou're going to have progress. I look
(24:07):
back on some of my earlier videos, which are certainly now private, and
I can definitely see the growth.But yeah, just press record and then
you can learn From there, you'lllearn how to be comfortable on camera,
You'll learn how to present information,You'll learn how to edit, how to
do all the fun search engine optimizationof YouTube. But the most important thing
(24:29):
is just recording your first video,right. And yeah, Leke Hunter said,
it does not matter about your cameraquality or anything like that. You
know, most people nowadays literally justuse their iPhone because you know, phone
cameras are crazy nowadays and they looklike expensive cameras without being well they're still
(24:49):
expensive, but being slightly cheaper orsomething you already have, right, and
I mean the Apple headphones are rightfor recording audio. So you know,
just sit down, grab what youhave. If you have an idea,
like Hunter said, just do it, just hit record. You'll never know
(25:11):
until you try. Yeah, exactly. You have probably in your pocket that
you're listening to this on right now, in awesome camera that can record four
K or tin ADP qualities, soyou have the tools to start. You
can even if you just want touse iMovie to keep editing. I know
there are some people who have tenor twenty thousand subscribers that use their iPhone
(25:34):
and iMovie, so it's definitely possibleto grow with what you have right now,
so don't let that be a barrierof entry. You have an unique
perspective and it's awesome that you havethe opportunity to share it now with YouTube.
So just upload your first video andsee what happens, right exactly.
That's amazing advice, Hunter. Andso you touched on this a little bit
(25:59):
earlier, but you have your ownpodcast as well, right, yeah,
so a couple Well recently it's beenless frequent, but every once in a
while I will sit down on ReptileCoffee Club with one of my favorite reptile
creators as well as my co hostGracie from EFG Exotics and we'll just have
a conversation about a topic in reptilekeeping. So we do that on YouTube
(26:23):
live and then within twenty four hours. It's also available wherever you listen to
your podcasts, so if you wantto find that, you can just head
to Reptile Coffeeclub dot com. Awesome, and shout out to Gracie. She
has been one of my followers fora very very long time, so shout
out to Gracie EFG Exotics love you. She messaged me before this and was
(26:47):
like Hunters amazing, He's gonna doso good. So she loves you and
we love you, Gracie. Gracie'sawesome. Thank you, Gracie. And
so you kind of mentioned it,is there anything specifically that you talk about
their like care or does it leantowards interviews style, like what's your style
(27:10):
there? So it is certainly interviewstyle, but it's more of a conversation
as well. So I've had severalguests on, most recently Jessica from Jessica's
Animal Friends, who if you're listeningto this show, you know who she
is. She's awesome. But we'vealso had so with Jessica, we talked
about how she rescues special need specialneeds reptiles, and then with a previous
(27:33):
episode, we talked to someone whohas a degree in the science of animal
keeping. So we just dive intoa lot of specific topics, but it
ends up being a very broad conversationthat everyone can get something from, right,
So it's a lot like ours.So if you guys like pet Owner
Diary podcast and you're looking for apodcast like it, it sounds like Reptile
(27:59):
Coffee Club is what you are lookingfor. Thank you, and I know
that you said it already, butjust reiterate where can everyone find the podcast?
So if you search hunter howk onYouTube, it'll come up and it's
a playlist on my channel, orif you want to find it on wherever
(28:19):
you listen to your podcasts, whateverpodcast app you have, you can just
head to Reptile Coffeeclub dot com andthere are links for each individual podcast app
so you can open it from there. Perfect, awesome. Okay, So
I also want to get into yourrescue because, like we said, you
are only sixteen, and running arescue is a big business. So that's
(28:45):
Crimson Exotics Rescue Corre. Yeah.Yeah, And so what made you want
to start a rescue? For me? It just kind of felt natural since
I love frogs so much. Iwas taking them in from Craigslist, you
know, I had people just likegiving them to me left and right,
(29:07):
so it was only natural. Butwhat is your rescue story? Yeah?
So Crimson Exotics started in I believeDecember of twenty nineteen. It was co
founded by myself, Emma, whois still our vice president and still works
with the rescue right now, andthen one other person who's no longer with
(29:27):
us unfortunately. But yeah, wejust decided we see a need for a
rescue that operates in multiple states andcan ship reptiles to adopters and from people
needing to rehome them to our fosters. And we looked and looked and saw
that that wasn't something that existed inthe United States, and so we were
(29:49):
thinking and we just decided to pullthe trigger and make it happen. So
we are the first multi state reptilerescue that operates by shipping reptiles because we
wanted to have it accessible to peoplewho live in places like me Wyoming and
other remote communities where otherwise you wouldn'tbe able to have access to adopt reptiles,
(30:11):
or people who need to rehome themmight not be able to find a
responsible place to take them in.So we provide that service for people,
right And that I mean, yeah, I've never heard of anything like that.
You know, with my rescue,we do ship, but you know,
it's just me, so it's onlyone person, So we don't have
(30:33):
fosters or anything like that. Butthat like have so you guys have fosters
in multiple states? Is it otherpeople or is it just you? Emma
and the rest of the team yeah, so basically we actually we're currently accepting
(30:53):
applications just in case anyone is interestedin joining our team. But currently we
have myself here in Wyoming and I'llbe moving to Kansas and June, so
I'll be covering that area soon.And then we have Emma in Minnesota,
and we have an awesome foster namedBella in New Jersey. At I think
the most we've had at one timewas six fosters, but that was a
(31:15):
lot, and so as people haveleft based on whatever personal reason they had
where they weren't able to do thisanymore, we've slowly paired it down to
three people. And we're interested inadding someone in the Pacific Northwest or California
because that's another area that we definitelysee a need for Crimson Exotics in.
(31:37):
But yeah, we have just threeof us right now. Awesome. Well,
if you all get any frogs inyou know, send them down to
me. Yeah, we can makesomething work. And again, guys,
that is Crimson Exotics on Instagram justat Crimson Exotics cr I M S O
(32:00):
N E x O T I cS and you guys can go check out
the website from there. And doyou all have any one up for adoption
right now? Is there anyone searchingfor a home? Yeah? Actually we
have a few. I can't rememberthem all off the top of my head,
(32:22):
so I guess that tells you howmany. So I'll head to our
website right now, which is justCrimson Exotics dot org. Let's see here.
Available animals include bare subadult male ballpython. We have Jamie the adult
male crested gecko, who I'm actuallyfostering, so if you want to adopt
an animal from me, and thenwe also have Venus the female leopard gecko,
(32:45):
and Frank the male bearded dragon.Awesome. All right, guys,
again that's Crimson Exotics and we'll beright back with Hunter Howk, Hunter Helk
Official and Crimson Exotic Rescue at NavaPets. We know how important your furry
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natural calming effect, perfect for thecontinuous barkers or those stressed out cats.
We also offer a range of flavorsincluding bacon, peanut butter, and salmon.
(34:00):
What's not to love At napopets dotcom you can spoil your pet with
goodness, treat your pet like theytreat you. Welcome backstet family to the
(34:28):
Pet Owner Diary Show. My nameis Tay and we are here with Hunter
Howk of Hunter Howk Official is YouTubechannel Hunter Howk, Crimson Exotics and what
we just learned about the Reptile Coffeepodcast, which sounds amazing. And so
(34:50):
I want to get in a littlebit more about being a creator because you
know, like I, like Isay, with all my creators, you
don't really know what goes on insidethe creator world if you are not an
influencer, because we try to keepall that fun stuff out of our persona
(35:12):
and away from the public. So, what are some things that you love
about being a creator or influencer,whatever you want to call it. You
know, I really love being acontent creator and there aren't very many parts
of it that I dislike. ButI'd say my favorite is just being able
to share awesome, well produced contentwith people from anywhere in the world.
(35:38):
They can access it and learn allabout these awesome animals through what I'm doing,
and so that it definitely feels verymeaningful in it feels like I'm making
a difference. So that's my favoritepart. Oh so sweet, I love
it. So tell us what it'slike to be, you know, a
(35:59):
crea are striving for their big break. How much pressure does that put on
your mentality or do you enjoy it? And you know, maybe you don't
have any stress? What is iton that? Oh I definitely have some
stress, but I actually enjoyed thestress. I tend to work better under
(36:20):
pressure, and so that's the funnything about me and why I feel like
I thrive in this industry, ifyou will. But yeah, I think
it is definitely a lot of work, and especially because I do only have
less than ten thousand on all ofmy platforms. It's a lot of work,
but right now I am able towork hard and make it so that
(36:43):
that pays for my expenses and allof my reptile needs and that fun stuff.
So yeah, it is a lotof stress, but I enjoy the
stress, right, That's amazing.Yeah, especially, I mean, you
know, even though I have,you know, as many followers as I
do, I still struggle with paymentand you know, making it a full
(37:05):
career. So numbers at the endof the day, unless you're really up
there, they don't always mean everything. So you know, you shouldn't really
focus on that or put stress becauseyou know, like Hunter said, he
might not have ten thousand yet,big yet, but you know, you
(37:28):
still enjoy what you do and itjust motivates you to continue. Yeah,
And I feel like having a smallplatform can be an advantage sometimes because I
can really make that personal connection withmy subscribers. And I feel like a
lot of brands are starting to recognizethat because they are moving a lot of
their influencer budget to smaller creators becausewe do have a more personal connection.
(37:54):
And I'm sure you can relate tothis too, because while you are a
big creator, you still you know, You're not in the millions of millions
who never get to interact with yourfollowers. So a lot of brands are
willing to partner with us as opposedto people with tens of millions of followers
because we have that personal connection.So our followers, really, do you
(38:14):
trust us? Right? And onething that you know I always tell people,
and that I notice, is thatyou know, the people who have
been with you since the beginning ofyour social media journey are the people who
will always be dedicated and have yourback, and those people are going to
(38:34):
be really important when you do getbigger, if you get bigger or you
know, start thinking more professionally aboutyour career. Absolutely we can't do it
without the support of the people whoover time do become our friends. Yeah,
so what is your goal for youraccounts? Do you aim for fame
(38:59):
or you know, just having funand doing what you love. I'm definitely
doing what I love. But Iwould love to make this sick career because
I feel like there are so manyturns. Excuse me, it's so many
stones that I haven't turned yet,and so many video ideas that I still
have and if I were to,if I were able to do this as
(39:19):
a full time career when I'm anadult. I would absolutely love that.
So I'm working hard now to setup that foundation. Yeah that makes a
lot of sense, and we talkeda little bit about them, But what
are some of the qolest opportunities orthings that you've gotten to do because of
your social even as a small creator, I have met so many awesome people.
(39:44):
My best friend Emma actually, whoco founded Crimson Exotics with me.
If it weren't for YouTube, wenever would have met because we're both YouTube
creators. Also the Snake Discovery buildoff, getting to meet a lot of
people who I look up to thatwas pretty awesome. And just getting invited
to some other smaller events like nextweekend, I believe it is, I'm
(40:05):
going to film an expo in Billings, Montana, so that's fun. And
in July I'm going to the SchombergNorth American Reptile Breeders conferences. So those
are all opportunities that I definitely wouldn'thave had if it weren't for YouTube,
So I'm super grateful for it inthat manner. Yeah, wow, that's
amazing. So if you guys areyou know, gonna be in any Montana
(40:29):
expos or anything like that and lookout for a Hunter there. And Hunter,
you've been wonderful. Thank you somuch for coming on the show.
Use this time now to promote anythingyou want, tell people where to find
you on all your platforms. Justtake this time to self promote and always
(40:50):
be plugging. Well. Thank youvery much. Yeah, if you want
to learn more about Crimson Exotics ReptileRescue again, you can head to Crimson
Exotics dot org or just google CrimsonExotics. We're the first that comes up.
And if you want to find me, I'm Hunter Howk. Anywhere you
can just find me go to hunterhowkdot com. That's h u n t
e r h o u c kdot com and there's links to everywhere that
(41:15):
I am on the internet on thatwebsite. Amazing. Thank you for spelling
it out too. That save mesome work, all right. Well,
thank you so much for joining ustoday, Hunter. It was an absolute
pleasure, and you guys be lookingout for Hunter. He's gonna be big
one day. I can just feelit. And you're definitely bound to hit
(41:37):
your lucky stride soon, can justfeel it. Thank you for hanging out
with us. Today everyone. Comeback next week. We have an Easter
special and we'll see you then,same time, same place on the Pet
Owner Diary Show. I've been TayShoemaker. Thanks and goodbye. Thank you
(41:58):
for joining us on Pet Owner Diary. Make sure to visit our website pet
Ownerdiary dot com, where you cansign up for our newsletter, view show
highlights, and download each episode viaSoundCloud. Make sure to subscribe to the
show on your favorite podcast app too, so you and your pet never miss
an episode Pet Family. If youlike what you hear, please share on
(42:20):
your social media and tell a friendto tune in on behalf of America's Pet
Owner Coach, Janelle Young. Wewish you love, peace and harmony with
your pet. We'll catch you inthe next episode.
Welcome to the Pet Owner Diary Podcast, a show about helping you become a
better pet parent. In each episode, we deliver raw, honest, funny,
and insightful advice on how to bea great pet parent for any type
of pet. Now here's your host, America's Pet Owner Coach Janelle Young.
Welcome back to the Pet Owner DiaryShow. My name is Tassuemaker, and
(00:24):
I'll be your co host today.Pet influencers, what does it take to
be one? An even harder questionfor you? What does it take to
become one? If you ask anycontent creator with a larger following, they'll
almost always tell you the same thing. Luck with ever changing algorithms, trends,
(00:47):
drama and audiences, I can atleast say for myself that Lady Luck
was definitely involved, but it alsohelped to have cute frogs doing most of
the modeling work. If you don'tknow, I have a I guess I
would say pretty successful social media personatases out at critters or my TikTok name
(01:10):
mother of Frogs. I started myInstagram account back in twenty sixteen for my
little beta fish and it grew fromthere and thanks to my accounts I've met
so many wonderful people, been ableto do so many things that I never
imagined I could, and I gotwonderful opportunities just like this show. But
(01:32):
it took a lot of hard workand dedication on top of the luck to
get here. One of my favoritethings to do as a creator with a
larger following is uplift smaller creators.And there's one person who has been on
my radar for a while now.Watching him grow into his content has been
so satisfying because I can just tellhe's going to go so far and do
(01:55):
so good. He's a hard workerwith a dedicated following and a very consistent
upload schedule. I'd like to introducey'all to Hunter Huok, the creator of
Hunter Walk Official and founder of CrimsonExotic Rescue. Hey Hunter, how are
you doing today? Hey Tay,I'm doing well. Thank you so much
(02:16):
for having me and for your kindwords. Yes, and am I saying
your last name right? Just tomake sure? Um it's Hunter howk?
But either way is good, perfect, good to know everyone's hawk all right?
And so Hunter, I've known youfor a few years now. We
haven't really gotten to chat, butwe've we've talked a little bit, and
(02:38):
I see your YouTube videos come upon my page all the time. I
can really see the drive in you, and that's needed to make it in
social media. For those who don'tknow you, Could you introduce yourself to
everyone? Absolutely? Hi, everyone, My name is Hunter. Howk um
oh boy. This is a hardquestion. I don't really know how to
(03:00):
describe myself, but basically, Ikeep reptiles and amphibians and I make digital
content. My saying is that Iwant to build community with reptile and amphibian
keepers around the world. So that'swhat I'm hoping to do on my little
section of the Internet, I guess. And so Hunter has almost four thousand
(03:20):
followers, so he's getting close tothe big milestone of ten thousand for me
at least, and I think manyof our people in our pool of Internet
might agree with me. A creator, a small creator under twenty thousand is
what is actually considered to be asmall creator. But even then with forty
(03:40):
thousand, I'm considered a small creatorfor Instagram, so for some perspective,
to be considered a full celebrity,a couple hundred thousand to a couple million
followers are needed. In that case, I am placed at the very start
of the spectrum and not even halfwaythere. So everything Hunter and I are
(04:02):
going to be talking about today isall from our own retrospect So Hunter,
when did you start your journey withsocial media? Oh, that's a great
question. So I started making YouTubevideos in I believe March of twenty eighteen,
but I didn't start focusing seriously onthe reptile and amphibian or pet content
(04:25):
side of social media and tell abouttwenty nineteen, gotcha? And I know
before I started, I had severalinspirations and reasons to start my account.
Was there anyone or anything that madeyou really want to create your pet account
or just your social media in general? What made you want to join?
(04:46):
Absolutely? So I saw the impactthat people like Emzodic she was one of
my biggest role models at first,and people like Snake Discovery. You could
have on other reptile keepers or evenJessica who you Jessica's animal friends who you
had on the show a couple ofweeks ago or something. Yeah, But
like that, I saw how muchI could learn from them, and I
(05:08):
realized that maybe if other young reptilekeepers saw a young reptile keeper doing what
they want to be doing that itwould encourage them to do better and keep
going. So that's kind of whyI decided to switch to the reptile side
of things, but just social mediain general. I've always enjoyed creating content,
so I thought that that would bea fun way to do so,
(05:31):
right, and so I outed myselfin the last episode. So I'm gonna
oh you here too. I amtwenty one and Hunter is only sixteen,
and he's got to rescue a merchbusiness, a podcast, a booming YouTube
channel, and like so many otherthings. How how do you manage to
(05:55):
at least look so well put togetherat that age because I joined at the
same age and I was a mess. Well, that's a good question.
I guess the main thing is GoogleCalendar. Seriously, that's my main tip.
I have everything in my Google calendarlaid out for the day, and
if I didn't, I would definitelybe all over the place because I do
(06:16):
have a lot going on, andalso I do online school, so that
definitely helps me have a lot offree time to do my stuff with my
different businesses. Gotcha, Yeah,that was actually my next question because you
are so young school, but Iguess that makes it makes things easier when
you know you can kind of doschool from home and be on your own.
(06:39):
I mean, I don't know howonline school works, but I assume
you're you're kind of on your ownschedule there. Yeah, basically I have
a certain number of things I haveto do each day or each week,
but I can kind of do them. I could do them at six am
or six pm or one am orwhatever. So, oh, that's so
nice. Yeah. I was inI guess you could say regular high school
(07:00):
when I joined, and yeah,I mean I was not the I'm not
the busiest person. I wasn't muchof an honor student, I'll say that,
but it was still tough to keepup with that definitely. Yeah,
and so you kind of started talkingabout it. Is there any like real
strategy you have to keep the consistencymaybe other than the calendar or you know,
(07:23):
what's your real strategy with that.I try to definitely plan out my
content Right now, I'm working ona few big video projects behind the scenes
as well as creating my normal weeklyor bi weekly uploads, and so it
definitely gets kind of difficult. Butyeah, on my computer I use Notion
(07:43):
to organize most of my video stuff, so I have different pages on there
where I can plan out videos aheadof time, so I can just sit
down film one, spend the nightediting it or something like that, and
then get it up and move onto the next thing. I don't have
a ton of time to work onvideos for hours and hours, so it's
(08:05):
definitely tricky, but I do tryto schedule it out right. Yeah,
that makes a lot of sense.That's way more than I do. I
kind of just kind of I knowyou're big on YouTube, and my YouTube
is not like that. I kindof just throw stuff up maybe once a
year. I don't think i've uploadedin the last year, so scheduling sounds
(08:26):
like something I need to do.I'm not good with time management. And
so you have like over eight thousandsubscribers on YouTube when I checked the last
that's you know, it doesn't seemlike a whole lot, but that's actually
a great achievement for YouTube. Becausethere's so much content to consume, it's
(08:48):
really easy to get lost in themix. How would you describe your content
on there? Yeah, so Itry to make educational and entertaining at the
same time content. So I liketo teach people about reptiles and amphibians and
build community with them at the sametime. I want people to be able
to learn while also enjoying, soI try to have high quality, professional
(09:13):
videos that people can relate, tolearn from and enjoy. Right, And
so you do a lot of likecare guide videos and stuff like that.
Is there is there anyone that waslike your favorite or that you really really
enjoy. Oh, that's a reallygood question. You know. I don't
(09:33):
know that I have a favorite videothat I've made, but I'd have to
say I really enjoy anything with leopardgeckos, So probably my leopard gecko care
guide. Oh our leopard geckos?Your favorite reptile? Do you have a
favorite? Don't tell them that,but yes, definitely, it's fine.
(09:54):
I have a favorite too. Yeah. And so your most popular video on
there is I think when I checked, it's the behind the scenes at the
Snake Discovery Zoo has like fifty fivethousand views on it. You were doing
a tank building competition, is thatright? Yes? Yeah, so I
(10:16):
was their last August for the SnakeDiscovery Enclosure build off, and that particular
video that you mentioned was filmed actuallyafter the event for that day, and
so I got to do a tourof behind the scenes of their news zoo,
and people really enjoyed that. Itwas a lot of fun, right
and we'll talk about that more afterthe break. We'll be right back with
(10:39):
Hunter how of Hunter Howpe Official atNava Pets. We know how important your
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We also offer a range of flavors, including bacon, peanut butter,
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your pet with goodness, treat yourpet like they treat you. Welcome back
(12:16):
pet Family. Today we are withHunter Howk of Hunter Howk Official and Crimson
Exotic Rescue, and we were talkingabout his YouTube channel and a little bit
of the start of his career.So I want to continue with the YouTube
because we were talking about what Iwould say is your most popular video,
(12:39):
the Snake Discovery Behind the scenes andso just to remind us, you were
there for a enclosure building competition.Yeah, So they invited ten reptile content
creators from around I guess the UnitedStates in Canada to come down for a
day spend a day at the zoo, and we all built a four by
(13:01):
two by two enclosure and then thepublic was able to vote on which one
was their favorite, and then theywere auctioned off at the grand opening of
the Snake Discovery Zoo and the proceedswent to the United States Association of Reptile
Keepers. Wow, and so youkind of said it, but I want
to double check how did you endup doing that? Was there like a
sign up for just anybody or didthey specifically invite you, so Emily and
(13:26):
Ed reached out to me. Wehad spoken a few times and we've since
become good friends. But yeah,they reached out and asked if I wanted
to come, and I was likeabsolutely, because it was an awesome opportunity.
Wow, that's amazing honestly, becauseyou know, a lot of people
do not get those types of opportunities, and the fact that they reached out
(13:48):
to you means that they saw somethingin you, and that's really really special.
Yeah, I'm super grateful. They'vebeen big supporters of my channel since
when I had less than a thousandsubscribers, So oh, I love that.
And you're a hard worker, likeeven I can see the dedication,
the consistency is there. You reallyhave everything that you need to really make
(14:13):
it. So I definitely see thatnew and I know what they saw.
Thank you. And so how wasmeeting them working with such a huge creator
and Snake Discovery If our listeners don'tknow who we're speaking of, Snake Discovery
has almost I think three million subscriberson YouTube and that's just YouTube. They
(14:35):
have you know, accounts on everyplatform. So how cool was that?
Hunter? It was pretty awesome.So I had spoken to them because I
had them on a podcast that Iused to co host, and so I
kind of knew them and knew aboutthem. But we all went to dinner
the night before, myself and thenmost of the competitors, and so it
(14:56):
was really cool meeting everyone. Everyonewas super nice. It didn't feel like
you were in a room with combinedtens of millions of followers. You were
just there with cool people. Soit was awesome. Yeah, that's always
the best. One of the thingsthat I really love getting to do is
you know, when you do meetup with other people, or you know,
(15:16):
when you meet with people who youknow have a bigger audience with you,
you never really feel I mean,so far, no one has ever
made me really feel like I wasa smaller creator or you know that there
I wasn't worth their time or anythinglike that. Yeah, And I think
that's one of the awesome things aboutthe PET communities that people they everyone just
(15:39):
wants to share knowledge and they knowthat no matter how many followers you have,
everyone has something valuable to contribute forsure. Yeah, exactly. And
I mean especially this seasoned people.You know, back in my day when
I first joined when I was sixteen. There was a lot of drama because
there wasn't a huge community, butthe people that were in it were always
(16:04):
you know, smaller accounts being pettywith each other and stuff like that.
The big guys were never, neverin it, so there were really people
that you could look up to.Yeah, definitely speaking of drama, you
know, I mean, don't sayanything specific, but do you have experience
with that? Because I know Idefinitely do because I didn't know how to
(16:29):
be quiet and just not let hateget to me. So that's definitely a
lesson I've learned over the years.But yeah, when I first started in
the reptile YouTube community, there wasa lot of turmoil and drama going on.
Some of the big creators were gettingcanceled, so to speak, and
so it was definitely a big transitionperiod and a big shift going on in
(16:52):
the politics and dynamics of the reptilecommunity in general on YouTube. And so
I saw that and I learned like, Okay, this is bad. Drama
isn't helping anyone, It's only hurtingpeople. So I have done a pretty
good job of staying out of itas best as I can, because I
was very fortunate to fortunate or unfortunate, I guess, to join at a
(17:14):
time when there was a lot ofturmoil in the online reptile community, right,
And you know, I do thinkpart of it is the shift to
a younger audience, you know,because part of gen Z we stand up
for literally anything and we're you know, we'll just say what's on our mind.
But surprisingly, I've noticed that alot of a lot of the older
(17:38):
adults seem to seem to get inon the drama sometimes, which is very
surprising. Yeah, that is surprising, But it is definitely more of the
older people in the hobby who causedrama because they're pretty resistant to change.
Very broadly speaking, I'm not naminganyone specific or anything, but there are
(17:59):
a lot of people who are veryresistant to change, and so they kind
of get exiled from the online reptilecommunity because they, I guess, don't
want to adopt the new ways ofkeeping that the newer, younger people are
making mainstream, if that makes sense, right, well, and you know,
there are problems of people really thinkingthat there's only one right way to
(18:23):
do it and it's their way,when you know, you can literally google
one you know one animal and getmillions of results on how to care for
them, so it gets confusing.And like I said, you know,
we we young inns. We standup for what we believe in, so
(18:44):
sometimes we think we're always right forsure. But yeah, no, it's
it's been interesting to kind of growup in this community. I know you've
been in it a little bit shorterthan I have. What was your experience
(19:06):
coming in at you know, sucha young age. Yeah, so I
started in twenty eighteen, which,oh gosh, now I have to do
math here. That means I wouldhave been thirteen, so oh yeah,
it was definitely a yeah, alittle baby hunter. It was definitely a
young age to join the reptile communityand stuff. But I think people showed
(19:30):
me a lot of support and thatwas awesome because I have never been afraid
to ask question excuse me, askquestions and seek new information. And if
there was just a method of keepingthat I was like, this doesn't seem
right. I would try to findout where that started and maybe dismantled that
a little bit. So, youknow, it was weird, but I
feel like I I've always been kindof a mature person, so it didn't
(19:55):
feel like I was super young comparedto a lot of the other people because
everyone was very respectful and treated mejust like anyone else, right, And
Yeah, I was gonna say,you're very you know, you're very professional,
which is interesting to see because Ihave a lot of younger viewers and
I don't think i've met someone youknow, your age that is really just
(20:19):
just keeps things professional. You're very, very good at that. Thank you.
I would definitely It's definitely takes somework, but I try my best.
Yeah. No, I was gonnasay I was not like that when
I was your age, So it'svery It's refreshing to see, and I
think that's also why you've done sowell well. Thank you. Yeah,
(20:42):
and we do have to take aquick break here, so we'll be right
back with Hunter howp of Hunter HelpOfficial and Crimson Exotics Rescue. We all
(21:06):
know that a dog is man's bestfriend, won't why stop there? We
think that all pets make our livesa little easier, whether it's a cat,
gecko, or even a horse.We want to learn what makes your
pets so special to you. Maybethey have an eccentric personality or even give
good cuddles whatever it is, wewant to hear about it. After all,
(21:26):
our pets deserve a moment in thespotlight. Why not share an interesting
story about your pet with our host, pet coach Janelle Young. No matter
how big or small, We'd loveto hear from you on the Pet Owner
Diary show. We're looking for thenext pet celebrity superstar or that unique animal
story for TV and radio. Ifyou believe your pet has the it factor,
then call our pet line at fouroh seven nine oh six fifty seven
(21:49):
twelve or email us at pet OwnerDiary at gmail dot com. The possibilities
are endless. Maybe you and yourpet will be our next featured weekly guest
on TV or radio. Let's giveour pets the attention they deserve. Welcome
(22:17):
back, pet Family. We arehere with Hunter how of Hunter How Official
and just so I can get thisright and you can get this right.
That is at h U N TE R h O U C K official
O F F I C I AL if you want to go and check
(22:41):
Hunter out. We were talking abit of what it's like to be in
the community. This episode is ourrising star episode, and you know,
one of the things that I wantto start doing is featuring these smaller creators
because they are amazing and they needpeople to know about them. You know,
(23:02):
the more that we can uplift thiscommunity, the better. So Hunter
is our kind of test pilot todayand we were talking a bit about the
community, and so Hunter, let'smove back to your YouTube channel. All
right, So you had talked abouthow you plan things out, you have
(23:25):
a schedule, and I wanted toknow you said a little bit that you
know, that was your advice,but I really would like to know what
you would tell someone who's wanting tostart a YouTube channel. But is you
know, scared about not succeeding orhaving issues or you know, stuff like
(23:45):
that. Yeah, certainly, mybiggest piece of advice is just press record.
You don't have to have the nicestcamera at first. I started out
on I think like a one hundreddollar old DSLR or something exactly, remember
what it was, But yeah,just press record. It's not going to
be your greatest video. That's whyyou're going to have progress. I look
(24:07):
back on some of my earlier videos, which are certainly now private, and
I can definitely see the growth.But yeah, just press record and then
you can learn From there, you'lllearn how to be comfortable on camera,
You'll learn how to present information,You'll learn how to edit, how to
do all the fun search engine optimizationof YouTube. But the most important thing
(24:29):
is just recording your first video,right. And yeah, Leke Hunter said,
it does not matter about your cameraquality or anything like that. You
know, most people nowadays literally justuse their iPhone because you know, phone
cameras are crazy nowadays and they looklike expensive cameras without being well they're still
(24:49):
expensive, but being slightly cheaper orsomething you already have, right, and
I mean the Apple headphones are rightfor recording audio. So you know,
just sit down, grab what youhave. If you have an idea,
like Hunter said, just do it, just hit record. You'll never know
(25:11):
until you try. Yeah, exactly. You have probably in your pocket that
you're listening to this on right now, in awesome camera that can record four
K or tin ADP qualities, soyou have the tools to start. You
can even if you just want touse iMovie to keep editing. I know
there are some people who have tenor twenty thousand subscribers that use their iPhone
(25:34):
and iMovie, so it's definitely possibleto grow with what you have right now,
so don't let that be a barrierof entry. You have an unique
perspective and it's awesome that you havethe opportunity to share it now with YouTube.
So just upload your first video andsee what happens, right exactly.
That's amazing advice, Hunter. Andso you touched on this a little bit
(25:59):
earlier, but you have your ownpodcast as well, right, yeah,
so a couple Well recently it's beenless frequent, but every once in a
while I will sit down on ReptileCoffee Club with one of my favorite reptile
creators as well as my co hostGracie from EFG Exotics and we'll just have
a conversation about a topic in reptilekeeping. So we do that on YouTube
(26:23):
live and then within twenty four hours. It's also available wherever you listen to
your podcasts, so if you wantto find that, you can just head
to Reptile Coffeeclub dot com. Awesome, and shout out to Gracie. She
has been one of my followers fora very very long time, so shout
out to Gracie EFG Exotics love you. She messaged me before this and was
(26:47):
like Hunters amazing, He's gonna doso good. So she loves you and
we love you, Gracie. Gracie'sawesome. Thank you, Gracie. And
so you kind of mentioned it,is there anything specifically that you talk about
their like care or does it leantowards interviews style, like what's your style
(27:10):
there? So it is certainly interviewstyle, but it's more of a conversation
as well. So I've had severalguests on, most recently Jessica from Jessica's
Animal Friends, who if you're listeningto this show, you know who she
is. She's awesome. But we'vealso had so with Jessica, we talked
about how she rescues special need specialneeds reptiles, and then with a previous
(27:33):
episode, we talked to someone whohas a degree in the science of animal
keeping. So we just dive intoa lot of specific topics, but it
ends up being a very broad conversationthat everyone can get something from, right,
So it's a lot like ours.So if you guys like pet Owner
Diary podcast and you're looking for apodcast like it, it sounds like Reptile
(27:59):
Coffee Club is what you are lookingfor. Thank you, and I know
that you said it already, butjust reiterate where can everyone find the podcast?
So if you search hunter howk onYouTube, it'll come up and it's
a playlist on my channel, orif you want to find it on wherever
(28:19):
you listen to your podcasts, whateverpodcast app you have, you can just
head to Reptile Coffeeclub dot com andthere are links for each individual podcast app
so you can open it from there. Perfect, awesome. Okay, So
I also want to get into yourrescue because, like we said, you
are only sixteen, and running arescue is a big business. So that's
(28:45):
Crimson Exotics Rescue Corre. Yeah.Yeah, And so what made you want
to start a rescue? For me? It just kind of felt natural since
I love frogs so much. Iwas taking them in from Craigslist, you
know, I had people just likegiving them to me left and right,
(29:07):
so it was only natural. Butwhat is your rescue story? Yeah?
So Crimson Exotics started in I believeDecember of twenty nineteen. It was co
founded by myself, Emma, whois still our vice president and still works
with the rescue right now, andthen one other person who's no longer with
(29:27):
us unfortunately. But yeah, wejust decided we see a need for a
rescue that operates in multiple states andcan ship reptiles to adopters and from people
needing to rehome them to our fosters. And we looked and looked and saw
that that wasn't something that existed inthe United States, and so we were
(29:49):
thinking and we just decided to pullthe trigger and make it happen. So
we are the first multi state reptilerescue that operates by shipping reptiles because we
wanted to have it accessible to peoplewho live in places like me Wyoming and
other remote communities where otherwise you wouldn'tbe able to have access to adopt reptiles,
(30:11):
or people who need to rehome themmight not be able to find a
responsible place to take them in.So we provide that service for people,
right And that I mean, yeah, I've never heard of anything like that.
You know, with my rescue,we do ship, but you know,
it's just me, so it's onlyone person, So we don't have
(30:33):
fosters or anything like that. Butthat like have so you guys have fosters
in multiple states? Is it otherpeople or is it just you? Emma
and the rest of the team yeah, so basically we actually we're currently accepting
(30:53):
applications just in case anyone is interestedin joining our team. But currently we
have myself here in Wyoming and I'llbe moving to Kansas and June, so
I'll be covering that area soon.And then we have Emma in Minnesota,
and we have an awesome foster namedBella in New Jersey. At I think
the most we've had at one timewas six fosters, but that was a
(31:15):
lot, and so as people haveleft based on whatever personal reason they had
where they weren't able to do thisanymore, we've slowly paired it down to
three people. And we're interested inadding someone in the Pacific Northwest or California
because that's another area that we definitelysee a need for Crimson Exotics in.
(31:37):
But yeah, we have just threeof us right now. Awesome. Well,
if you all get any frogs inyou know, send them down to
me. Yeah, we can makesomething work. And again, guys,
that is Crimson Exotics on Instagram justat Crimson Exotics cr I M S O
(32:00):
N E x O T I cS and you guys can go check out
the website from there. And doyou all have any one up for adoption
right now? Is there anyone searchingfor a home? Yeah? Actually we
have a few. I can't rememberthem all off the top of my head,
(32:22):
so I guess that tells you howmany. So I'll head to our
website right now, which is justCrimson Exotics dot org. Let's see here.
Available animals include bare subadult male ballpython. We have Jamie the adult
male crested gecko, who I'm actuallyfostering, so if you want to adopt
an animal from me, and thenwe also have Venus the female leopard gecko,
(32:45):
and Frank the male bearded dragon.Awesome. All right, guys,
again that's Crimson Exotics and we'll beright back with Hunter Howk, Hunter Helk
Official and Crimson Exotic Rescue at NavaPets. We know how important your furry
(33:13):
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(34:00):
What's not to love At napopets dotcom you can spoil your pet with
goodness, treat your pet like theytreat you. Welcome backstet family to the
(34:28):
Pet Owner Diary Show. My nameis Tay and we are here with Hunter
Howk of Hunter Howk Official is YouTubechannel Hunter Howk, Crimson Exotics and what
we just learned about the Reptile Coffeepodcast, which sounds amazing. And so
(34:50):
I want to get in a littlebit more about being a creator because you
know, like I, like Isay, with all my creators, you
don't really know what goes on insidethe creator world if you are not an
influencer, because we try to keepall that fun stuff out of our persona
(35:12):
and away from the public. So, what are some things that you love
about being a creator or influencer,whatever you want to call it. You
know, I really love being acontent creator and there aren't very many parts
of it that I dislike. ButI'd say my favorite is just being able
to share awesome, well produced contentwith people from anywhere in the world.
(35:38):
They can access it and learn allabout these awesome animals through what I'm doing,
and so that it definitely feels verymeaningful in it feels like I'm making
a difference. So that's my favoritepart. Oh so sweet, I love
it. So tell us what it'slike to be, you know, a
(35:59):
crea are striving for their big break. How much pressure does that put on
your mentality or do you enjoy it? And you know, maybe you don't
have any stress? What is iton that? Oh I definitely have some
stress, but I actually enjoyed thestress. I tend to work better under
(36:20):
pressure, and so that's the funnything about me and why I feel like
I thrive in this industry, ifyou will. But yeah, I think
it is definitely a lot of work, and especially because I do only have
less than ten thousand on all ofmy platforms. It's a lot of work,
but right now I am able towork hard and make it so that
(36:43):
that pays for my expenses and allof my reptile needs and that fun stuff.
So yeah, it is a lotof stress, but I enjoy the
stress, right, That's amazing.Yeah, especially, I mean, you
know, even though I have,you know, as many followers as I
do, I still struggle with paymentand you know, making it a full
(37:05):
career. So numbers at the endof the day, unless you're really up
there, they don't always mean everything. So you know, you shouldn't really
focus on that or put stress becauseyou know, like Hunter said, he
might not have ten thousand yet,big yet, but you know, you
(37:28):
still enjoy what you do and itjust motivates you to continue. Yeah,
And I feel like having a smallplatform can be an advantage sometimes because I
can really make that personal connection withmy subscribers. And I feel like a
lot of brands are starting to recognizethat because they are moving a lot of
their influencer budget to smaller creators becausewe do have a more personal connection.
(37:54):
And I'm sure you can relate tothis too, because while you are a
big creator, you still you know, You're not in the millions of millions
who never get to interact with yourfollowers. So a lot of brands are
willing to partner with us as opposedto people with tens of millions of followers
because we have that personal connection.So our followers, really, do you
(38:14):
trust us? Right? And onething that you know I always tell people,
and that I notice, is thatyou know, the people who have
been with you since the beginning ofyour social media journey are the people who
will always be dedicated and have yourback, and those people are going to
(38:34):
be really important when you do getbigger, if you get bigger or you
know, start thinking more professionally aboutyour career. Absolutely we can't do it
without the support of the people whoover time do become our friends. Yeah,
so what is your goal for youraccounts? Do you aim for fame
(38:59):
or you know, just having funand doing what you love. I'm definitely
doing what I love. But Iwould love to make this sick career because
I feel like there are so manyturns. Excuse me, it's so many
stones that I haven't turned yet,and so many video ideas that I still
have and if I were to,if I were able to do this as
(39:19):
a full time career when I'm anadult. I would absolutely love that.
So I'm working hard now to setup that foundation. Yeah that makes a
lot of sense, and we talkeda little bit about them, But what
are some of the qolest opportunities orthings that you've gotten to do because of
your social even as a small creator, I have met so many awesome people.
(39:44):
My best friend Emma actually, whoco founded Crimson Exotics with me.
If it weren't for YouTube, wenever would have met because we're both YouTube
creators. Also the Snake Discovery buildoff, getting to meet a lot of
people who I look up to thatwas pretty awesome. And just getting invited
to some other smaller events like nextweekend, I believe it is, I'm
(40:05):
going to film an expo in Billings, Montana, so that's fun. And
in July I'm going to the SchombergNorth American Reptile Breeders conferences. So those
are all opportunities that I definitely wouldn'thave had if it weren't for YouTube,
So I'm super grateful for it inthat manner. Yeah, wow, that's
amazing. So if you guys areyou know, gonna be in any Montana
(40:29):
expos or anything like that and lookout for a Hunter there. And Hunter,
you've been wonderful. Thank you somuch for coming on the show.
Use this time now to promote anythingyou want, tell people where to find
you on all your platforms. Justtake this time to self promote and always
(40:50):
be plugging. Well. Thank youvery much. Yeah, if you want
to learn more about Crimson Exotics ReptileRescue again, you can head to Crimson
Exotics dot org or just google CrimsonExotics. We're the first that comes up.
And if you want to find me, I'm Hunter Howk. Anywhere you
can just find me go to hunterhowkdot com. That's h u n t
e r h o u c kdot com and there's links to everywhere that
(41:15):
I am on the internet on thatwebsite. Amazing. Thank you for spelling
it out too. That save mesome work, all right. Well,
thank you so much for joining ustoday, Hunter. It was an absolute
pleasure, and you guys be lookingout for Hunter. He's gonna be big
one day. I can just feelit. And you're definitely bound to hit
(41:37):
your lucky stride soon, can justfeel it. Thank you for hanging out
with us. Today everyone. Comeback next week. We have an Easter
special and we'll see you then,same time, same place on the Pet
Owner Diary Show. I've been TayShoemaker. Thanks and goodbye. Thank you
(41:58):
for joining us on Pet Owner Diary. Make sure to visit our website pet
Ownerdiary dot com, where you cansign up for our newsletter, view show
highlights, and download each episode viaSoundCloud. Make sure to subscribe to the
show on your favorite podcast app too, so you and your pet never miss
an episode Pet Family. If youlike what you hear, please share on
(42:20):
your social media and tell a friendto tune in on behalf of America's Pet
Owner Coach, Janelle Young. Wewish you love, peace and harmony with
your pet. We'll catch you inthe next episode.
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